Symzonia; A Voyage of Discovery

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1820. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER HI, The author passes South Georgia, and proceeds -in search of Sandwich land--States to his officers and men his reasons for believing in the existence of great bodies of land within the antarctic circle, and for- the opinion that the polar region is subject to great heat in summer.--Crew mutiny at the instigation of Mr. Slim, third mate--Happy disco . rery of a southern continent, which, at the unanimous and earnest solicitation of his officers and men, he names Seaborn's land. On the 10th of October we approached the principal harbour of South Georgia, which I had no intention to enter unless there was an appearance of an unusual abundance of seal on the coast. When near the harbour we discovered two ships lying there with their topmasts struck. This was evidence that there was no chance for us in that quarter. I now told my officers and people that I thought it useless to contend with those already in possession of the island for the few seal it could afford, and thought it most advisable to proceed in search of Sandwich land; where, no doubt, we could speedily obtain a full cargo of skins, if we could find it, of D which I expressed great confidence. I strengthened their hopes by assuring them that there was no doubt in my mind of the existence of extensive bodies of land within the antarctic circle, which quarter had scarcely been looked into by Christian navigators, and that my opinion was founded upon the fact that Cook, and other navigators, had seen large bodies of ice in latitude 70 to 71 south. This fact, I said, indicated the existence of land, because ice could not form in a deep salt sea uninterrupted by land, and agitated by the violent winds and currents of the polar region. I urged that we had but to persevere in our researc...